The music video we chose to study is that recorded by Taylor Swift called the story of us which shows a linear narrative. The video is set in a school library which refers to the title of the video, throughout this short piece the use of props plays a big part as words that are sung relate to sentences in some books which were being read. When signing “is it killing you like its killing me?” a book is being read which shows the words “killing me” and when Taylor sings the words “next chapter” she holds a book to the camera which reads next chapter. This video contains links between lyrics and visual which are clear to all members of the audience, such as when she sings “searching the room for an empty place” she is looking around the busy library looking for a seat. In this video a wide variety of camera shots have been used to create the different effects of emotion. Close ups have been used to enhance the lyrics of the song when emphasis needed to be related to the characters emotions and feelings. Other shots such as mid shots were regularly used throughout the video to provide the viewers with a good understand of the location and setting. The use of lighting has a profound effect on the way an image is perceived, this specific video uses rays of natural light through the windows instead of artificial side lights. During this video the use of dieagectic sound has been used when two of the characters have a conversation which is clearly seen but not heard. The costumes seen are simply what we would expect in a modern day American school, and fits in very well as the uses of dull colours shows that the song is not about happiness but about the upsetting relationship between two characters. The female characters all have subtle make up and average hair, this is what would expect from pupils in a high school and the males have an everyday modern hair style.
The genre of Taylor Swifts music video is pop, in contrast with this we have chosen to also study N-Dubz ft Mr Hudsons playing with fire which has a hip hop/R 'n' b genre.
This music video follows a fragmented narrative as although it is telling us 4 stories we are all shown the group and featuring artist standing together singing to the camera in between many shots. The beginning of this video starts by using a close up shot of the artists followed by their names underneath, the video is mainly filmed in an outdoor location at night although 2 different apartments were used to follow the narrative. It shows major locations by using high angle shots of the artists with places such as the London Bridge in the background and includes a bird’s eye view over the river Thames and its surrounding estates. One mid shot shows Tulisa singing whilst having artificial lights reflecting off the river in the back ground, this type of lighting was the only one used as it was filmed at night, the street lights became a common effect throughout the video. The colours in the song related to the music as they were singing about their partners being unfaithful so they all wore black outfits which symbolise their unhappiness. Hair and make-up were also kept to a minimal with the males with one artists wearing sunglasses throughout the video and another wearing a hat, which is a trade mark for this certain male, for the only women artists her hair was down and bright blonde, with vibrant blue eye shadow. Links between lyrics and visuals were common throughout this video, some of the major ones stood out more than others, such as when the words “playing with fire” were sung sparkling flames were shot up from around where the artists were standing. Another noticeable link is when Mr Hudson uses dieagectic sound whilst on the phone and sings the lyrics “call you back later” you see him mutter the words and then lower the phone from his ear whilst starting to follow another woman. Towards the end of the video, whilst singing the final chorus it shows us the use of a reverse cut when merging two scenes into one, which show the female artist in front of the men then the males in front of her. This video refers to modern day videos which involve more elaborate and meaningful lyrics, many people can relate to this.
The genre of Taylor Swifts music video is pop, in contrast with this we have chosen to also study N-Dubz ft Mr Hudsons playing with fire which has a hip hop/R 'n' b genre.
This music video follows a fragmented narrative as although it is telling us 4 stories we are all shown the group and featuring artist standing together singing to the camera in between many shots. The beginning of this video starts by using a close up shot of the artists followed by their names underneath, the video is mainly filmed in an outdoor location at night although 2 different apartments were used to follow the narrative. It shows major locations by using high angle shots of the artists with places such as the London Bridge in the background and includes a bird’s eye view over the river Thames and its surrounding estates. One mid shot shows Tulisa singing whilst having artificial lights reflecting off the river in the back ground, this type of lighting was the only one used as it was filmed at night, the street lights became a common effect throughout the video. The colours in the song related to the music as they were singing about their partners being unfaithful so they all wore black outfits which symbolise their unhappiness. Hair and make-up were also kept to a minimal with the males with one artists wearing sunglasses throughout the video and another wearing a hat, which is a trade mark for this certain male, for the only women artists her hair was down and bright blonde, with vibrant blue eye shadow. Links between lyrics and visuals were common throughout this video, some of the major ones stood out more than others, such as when the words “playing with fire” were sung sparkling flames were shot up from around where the artists were standing. Another noticeable link is when Mr Hudson uses dieagectic sound whilst on the phone and sings the lyrics “call you back later” you see him mutter the words and then lower the phone from his ear whilst starting to follow another woman. Towards the end of the video, whilst singing the final chorus it shows us the use of a reverse cut when merging two scenes into one, which show the female artist in front of the men then the males in front of her. This video refers to modern day videos which involve more elaborate and meaningful lyrics, many people can relate to this.
After analysing the two different music videos a Taylor swift music video from the genre pop and an n-Dubz video from the genre R ‘n’ B/ hip hop we can see that there are some similar aspects between the videos but there are also some very different codes and conventions used. Both videos use a variety of camera shots and camera angles to add effect to their videos, the N-Dubz video from the genre R ‘n’ B/ hip hop uses more camera angles for example high angle shots and close ups which are used to show a person being more important or less important these camera angles are common for this genre. Whereas Taylor swift’s pop music video uses more mid shots and wide shots frequently to show the next part of the story in the video. Another shot which was very noticeable was the use of a birds eye view shot in the N-Dubz video which again is common in R ‘n’ B type music videos used to create dramatic effect. These type of shots used in both videos have been specifically chosen to fit that genre, as the Taylor swift video displays a linear narrative the shots used are similar and continuous, while the N-Dubz video has a fragmented narrative the use of the camera has been chosen more widely and contains a variety of different shots creating certain effects. Not only can we see the different types of camera shots but the mis en scene has also been chosen to suit the genre. In Taylor swift’s pop video the costume is chosen very much to fit the narrative and also subtle hair and makeup is used compared to the N-Dubz R ‘n’ B genre this video consist of girls makeup being more vibrant and costumes are chosen to fit the audiences perception of a modern London artists style. Other differences include the location and the lighting which again were very different depending on the genre, Taylor swift’s pop video used natural lights, whereas N-Dubz R ‘n ’B video used a lot of artificial lights, again this is what we would expect to see. In relation to the setting Taylor swift’s pop video uses locations based inside a school to fit the narrative and N-Dubz R ‘n’ B video have a wider range of locations outside and inside. Overall these two videos helped us to see the difference between certain genres which are commonly used. This will help us to decide what codes and conventions we should use when deciding on the genre of our own music video.
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